Issue link: http://palletcentral.uberflip.com/i/1332064
32 PalletCentral • January-February 2021 palletcentral.com Lay Pheng Ooi, CEO Berjayapak Sdn Bhd. 2020 is rather memorable. With the USA taking steps moving their production facilities out of China, European countries are planning a similar move. Following COVID-19, which has severely disrupted the global supply chain, we are seeing container and vessel capacity shortages around the globe. On top of that, maintaining social distancing is a big challenge in a labor-intensive industry. All the events in 2020 are forcing the global manufacturing landscape to change. As global markets begin taking action to revive from 2020, the growing trends spotted for high-yield manufacturing are automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies to create a smart factory for mass production and less dependence on labor. Second is globalization to meet local market needs. Chris Lasseter General Manager, Summerford Pallet Company Our #1 goal is to forget 2020 ever happened. I have fought this idea, but we have to increase our push toward more automation. Labor is an ever-growing problem that doesn't seem to have a simple fix. LeRoi Cochran Vice President, Supply Chain, 48forty Our goal is continued growth – both organically as well as through strategic acquisitions. We look forward to continuing to work with our customers and suppliers to assist them in realizing the full value of their pallet programs. Joe DeMarco Vice President of Business Development & Communication, LINC Systems As a distributor serving the pallet industry, we have worked to implement technology tools to enhance our close field relationships with our customers. 2021 will be the year of making our marketing machine produce a great customer experience! We are glad that we got a start on these projects long before COVID-19. Using these tools to grow our customer base and our market share with our existing customer base is a key goal next year. Randy Panko Blades Sales Manager, Wood-Mizer This year has required many companies to shift gears, to be willing to try new things, and focus on ways to improve their business. For Wood-Mizer, this year was an opportunity to do all of that. We invested in our facilities, workforce, and technology in order to keep producing quality products for the industry. In addition, Wood-Mizer was committed to continuous product development in order to introduce new products and improve existing products to meet market demands. For the future, our goal is to continue to innovate and efficiently manufacture our world-leading sawmill and wood processing products for the lumber and pallet industry so that your businesses can be productive and profitable for years to come. Frances Cooper CEO, Cooper Machine 2020 has been an interesting year here at Cooper Machine. Sales have been good and we have worked hard at keeping employees safe and productive. We are looking forward to a great 2021 with increasing production of pallet and softwood equipment to keep up with demand for those products. Steve Everett, Jr CEO, Timber Creek Resource In 2020, we lost over 12,000 hours of productive time to COVID-related absenteeism. Impressively, those team members who were still contributing from our own 'front lines' were able to meet the needs of our customers. As often occurs in times of crisis, people adapted, and the team accomplished more, with less. I have fought this idea, but we have to increase our push toward more auto- mation. Labor is an ever-growing problem that doesn't seem to have a simple fix. –Chris Lasseter, General Manager, Summerford Pallet Company While we have objectives and action steps for each goal, the biggest hurdle for 2021 will be in the area of attracting new employees and retaining the employees we currently have on staff. – Steve Yelland, President & Owner, JFR Holdings